"I Literally Couldn't Put It Down": From Timeless Classics To Modern Hits, These Are People's Favorite Horror Books For Halloween
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As someone who was basically raised by Goosebumps books, I absolutely love diving into a scary read — especially in the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween season.
That feeling when your heart is racing and you're scared to turn the page but you also can't stop? I love it.
Recently, u/LarryStylinson132809 asked people on Reddit to share the best horror book they've ever read, and the replies are full of books I need to get my hands on ASAP (and soooo many Stephen King recs. I only included one to make room to highlight other authors, so please let me know why I picked the wrong one in the comments). Here's what people had to say:
1."Currently for me I think it has to be Bird Box by Josh Malerman. It is so scary and nerve wrecking to me even on rereads. It gave me genuine heebie jeebies like no another book has. The movie does not do it justice in the slightest. I am sad none of his other books have been nearly as good but Bird Box is great."
2."Beloved by Toni Morrison. People don’t think of it as horror because of its status as a modern classic that is taught in AP Lit and college classes. But it’s a horror book by any definition."
"YES. We read it senior year in AP Lit and I didn’t sleep for like a week afterwards. It’s spooky and beautifully written and also incredibly sad — one of those books that will stay with you forever."
3."The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. It’s a pretty cliché answer, but there’s a reason for that."
"Such a great book, and a stellar audiobook as well, narrated by the author, who was perfect."
4."Night Film by Marisha Pessl is the creepiest, most unsettling atmosphere I’ve ever read in a book. Delightfully so. It’s about the suicide of the daughter of a reclusive horror film director. It’s an amazing book. Read the print version, because some of the interactive material didn’t transfer to Kindle very well. It’s a fantastic read for horror fans."
"Oooh, great choice. I don't see people talk about this often enough!"
5."My favorite has to be The Fisherman. It’s perfect as a piece of literary fiction exploring three people's reactions to grief and loss, but also is absolutely creepy and unsettling at times, and at other times epic and exciting."
"Just read that one yesterday in one sitting. John Langan is a phenomenal writer. I'm planning on going through all his books."
6."Annihilation. It's a perfect blend of sci-fi, psychological, cosmic, and body horror, and it’s the best horror novel I’ve ever read. The movie was decent, but the book was AMAZING. I cannot recommend it enough. Shoutout to Authority, it’s sequel, as well. A much different style, but it was so fucking creative I could talk about it for hours."
7."We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson."
"Aghhhhh, this book was so good. It’s been over a year since I last read it, and I probably think about it at least once or twice a week."
8."Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. It was brilliant! Very atmospheric, which is what I enjoy in a solid horror."
"That was a great supernatural thriller. A must-read for anyone who enjoys ghost stories."
9."Let the Right One In."
"The book is just agonizingly beautiful. It’s wild to have a book make you nauseated by violence and then weep from the acute pain of adolescence."
10."Battle Royale: Remastered by Koushun Takami. The remastered bit is only because it’s a new translation of the novel in English. Incredible horror novel. It was banned from release in Japan in 1996 due to its depictions of child murder, but was eventually released in 1999. The only novel ever released by Koushun Takami."
11."It’s still Dracula for me. It’s such a part of our cultural zeitgeist, that we often conflate it with the countless adaptations and memes that pervade our collective lexicon."
"But the original book is incredible. Harker’s ordeal is terrifying, the characters’ perspectives through their journal entries are full of depth, voice, and humanity. A random cutaway to an article about the Demeter was so good that they made a fucking movie about it. The relationships that form between the hunters is kinda wholesome. Mina and Jonathan share a sweet love story, Lucy is the epitome of repressed sexual desire, and Dracula himself is one scary customer.
It’s a brilliant novel that I’d argue still hasn’t been adapted well. Some have come close, but they focus too much on the style and sexuality of the story, while Stoker wrote a taut, unnerving monster story. The hunters tracking down Dracula is incredible, and the book deserves a true miniseries. Sometimes simple is best."
12."Mary: An Awakening of Terror on Audible. An incredible book elevated by a fantastic audio performance. It tells the story of a middle age woman with a mysterious past returning to her home town to care for her sick aunt. She then begins to see dead women all over town. Truly exceptional book."
13."It's not the scariest, but I believe the best horror book I've ever read was Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street. I stayed up until 4 a.m. finishing it because I literally couldn't put it down. It's brutal and utterly heartbreaking, and nothing is ever as it seems."
14."The Road."
"This book really affected me. I read it after I had my first child and I reflect on it often."
15."I really vibed with Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw because I am a slut for haunted houses and unreliable narrators."
16."Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s Canterbury Tales but a bit darker. A bunch of people go on a writer’s retreat in an old abandoned theater for three months to work on their stories. They’re known simply by their sins like 'Comrade Snarky,' 'Reverend Godless,' 'Saint Gut-free,' etc. and basically sabotage their environment to make their suffering greater. Greater suffering equals a better story for the remaining survivors."
"It’s a twisted book and every tale in there is disturbing on some level or another. 'Guts' is known for being physically disturbing while something like 'Exodus' is disturbing on a completely different level. Highly recommend."
17."House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski."
"What scares me most about the book is that at certain points in the book, it felt like the book was breaking the fourth wall and affecting my life. And the fact that no two people will read it the same. Yes, everyone will have different ideas about what it means, but I think that everyone also reads it in a different order."
18."Audition by Ryu Murakami. A widower who lives with his son decides to start dating and remarry. Adapted into a really fantastic Japanese film, too."
19."Pet Sematary by Stephen King."
"This one terrifies me for the same reasons a lot of his books do: I can see myself in the characters, and so many of his characters do Very Bad Things.
King has a way of helping the reader connect with the characters in a way that feels personal. We can relate to them and the way that they think, how they feel. And then even when they start to go off the rails, we can almost justify their reasons.
We root for these characters because they're flawed, they're in pain, they're desperate. Which makes them just like us, at our darkest moments. Whether we like to admit it or not, we can accept why people keep burying their dead up there, even when we KNOW it isn't right, that it doesn't help, that it won't really bring them back.
Because we are forced to witness the grief and guilt and pain and longing from inside their head, it is so easy to see how they want to believe that maybe this time it'll be different. And even if it's not, how badly they want to stop suffering the relentless, overwhelming pain that they're enduring.
That book made me feel sick to my stomach, but if I'm being honest, it's because I don't know that I can say for certain that I wouldn't at least consider it if I was in his shoes."
20."The Elementals by Michael McDowell."
"Yes! This book creeped me out and led me to reading all his work."
21."A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers. It's about a food critic who cannibalizes the men she sleeps with. It’s not scary (in my opinion) but it stuck with me and i think about it all the time."
22."The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a wildly engaging, thoughtful ghost story. A more contemporary novel that has similar vibes is Strangers by Taichi Yamada. Ethereal, romantic, scary, sexy, and sad. More thoughtfully frightening than outright scary, but an outstanding read."
23."Anything by Grady Hendrix is solid. I don't like all of his books, but he always has creative ideas, and some genuinely scary/disturbing scenes. Faves include My Best Friend's Exorcism, Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and Horrorstor."
"One of his scariest is How to Sell a Haunted House. If you're creeped out by dolls or puppets, this is really gonna put you on edge."
24."Truthfully, World War Z was the first book is a long time to scare me. Reading those first hand accounts during the Great Panic traumatized me, especially the one with the woman stuck with a childlike mind re-acting the night of the church attack. 10/10!"
What are your favorite horror books and why? Let's talk about it in the comments!
